So can I just say that I am so blessed this year with my students. I know I keep saying how great my group is, but I cannot stress how much I am loving this year. There are so many kids in my class that just want to do what’s right. There are a few strong personalities but overall, my students mesh well together. I’ve got so many happy children. This one little girl has a smle on her face every day all day long, even when she gets in trouble. Even though I’ve got the few that want to do what they want to do, i’ve got my talking patient voice down so i can get them to comply with me….it’s great! I do have quite a low class, like kids that can’t write their name, don’t recognize their name, don’t know any letters at all. Then i’ve got the other kids who know all letters and sounds and are generally ready to read! It just amazes me every year at the many academic letters that are in each classroom. You’ve got kids whose parents have never spent any more time with their child than they have to, and then you’ve got kids that don’t want to leave their parents because their parents have done absolutely everything for them for the past 5 years of their life. Then you’ve got those kids who are independent but still know that mom and dad are at home for them to help them when they need help, but they can still do everything on their own. Then you’ve got kids who don’t live with mom and dad, or mom or dad are in jail. It’s sad to think of the lives that some of these kids have. Ok, i’ve gotten off track from what started as telling you how wonderful I think my class is…until next time…….

another kid today…and we were worried about our numbers…..what were we thinking?!?! our days are completely successful until after lunch and then i think i lose them. It takes all of my patience to make it from 12:45-2:45….those 2 hours are longer than the first 4 hours of the day!!!!!!

I think i know why i’m so tired and worn out. Well during the summer teachers dont do anything, or at least this teacher doesn’t do anything. Then suddenly we have to go back to work but we have the hours of 8-3 with adults where we sit and talk and work at our own pace a lot of times. Well then the kids come. When they come, you forget how much of your energy they take from you. You forget how needy they are and how much you have to talk all day long. I slept quite a bit this weekend but I am still completely exhausted. The sad part about this is that I have to get up in the morning at 5:30 and leave around 6:30 and probably won’t be home until sometime around 8pm. Now that’s a long day for me. This is the critical time with my students. I have to stay on them 100% of the time so they will know exactly what I expect of them. They have to know I mean business so it means that I have to redirect students all day long so they will know what I want from them. After that, well after labor day, hopefully things will lighten up some and my students will know exactly what I expect from them. Anyways, needless to say, even after much sleep friday night and saturday afternoon, and last night, i am still so tired, so no matter how many people wanna make fun of me for being an old lady that goes to bed early, i’m hitting the sack early tonight. It’s not fun to be in a bad mood, tired, and grumpy, for 20 5 year olds…trust me!!!

Not too many parents wanted to “Meet the teacher” tonight. I had 7 kids that brought parents to the class tonight. That’s 7 out of 20. That’s pathetic if you ask me!!! I’m ok with it because it’s not my favorite night…we did get out of school early which is always wonderful I cannot stress how much I love my class this year. As a whole, they are so good. I mean, they got walking in a straight line after day 1. I had kids last year that couldn’t walk in a straight line at christmastime. They listen so well. They are quite chatty but what do you expect with 13 girls and only 7 boys. And the boys aren’t that loud at all. Actually most of the boys are quiet and don’t talk much. So the girls take over the classroom. Especially this one little girl. She is just cute but she isn’t afraid to tell you what she’s thinking. If she doesn’t wanna do something, she’ll make sure you know. She’s outspoken for sure. I could go on forever about the kids but I’m not. Alright, that’s all, until next time…

I survived!!! Actually the day went very well. I love my schedule and i have some great kids…not so many strong personalities this year. I’ve got quite a few quiet shy little ones which is great. I think they’ll balance each other out. I’ve got 19 kids…6 boys, and the rest girls (you do the math). Girls, you know how we are, we like to talk, so i’m sure i’m gonna have a chatty little class. We’ll see. Anyways, it’ll be interesting. I started this morning with 12 on my list and by 10:30 i had 19. And I was worried about numbers. Oh well, i’ve got great kids and this’ll be a great year!!! Quite busy, but it’s gonna be a good year. I’ve got lots of siblings of other kids in the school…i’ve had a few. They seem to be good so far. The second day is always harder than the first…pray that i will be patient. I forget from year to year how far they come throughout the year, how independent and responsible they become. I’ve got my european vacation to look forward to that will motivate me this year and of course inspiring young children to by lifelong learners! Anyways, i’ve got a good class with lots of sweet kids

Well tomorrow’s the day! My room is in order and i remembered to do everything….well almost everything. I still need to plan exactly what we are gonna do tomorrow. I’m sure you can see it now, just like my first year. That seems so long ago…it was a long time ago, man i feel old! I had everything planned out, but of course it didn’t take me as long as I thought it would so I think I was done by noon..lol! Then what do you do? Well you learn from that and make sure you have a weeks worth of material planned for the first day of school the next year. I don’t know that I’m going to plan quite that much, but i’m gonna try to plan as much as I possibly can because its not the best thing when you’ve got lots of 5 year olds (and in some cases 4 year olds) sitting around with nothing to do…they tend to go wild. It doesn’t get that much easier even if I am going on my 4th first day of school, especially when you’re dealing with the little ones. It’s their first day of school. Some of them have never been away from mom before. Some have never been around other children, and some just get so excited to be around so many exciting things. My only concern right now is our numbers. I’m not referring to learning the numbers. I’m talking about how many kindergarteners are enrolled. I’ve only got 12 on my list. The other classes have about the same amount too. That’s not enough to keep all 3 classes, so start praying now that we get 4 new kids each the first day so we can keep all 3 teachers and keep our small classes….that’d be a first! I’m ready for my kids, maybe not at 7:30 in the morning, when we were asked to be ready for parents to bring kids down to the room…..that calls for one long day!!! If you think about it, pray for me tomorrow…..it’s been a few months since i’ve had as much patience as tomorrow will take. I must start over for these little ones. They don’t know how to do all mine could do last year by the end of the year. They don’t know how to go through the lunch line, they may not know how to write their name, and they might not be able to sit for more than 15 minutes at a time. I must remember that…its gonna be hard for a while…i like to call it “boot camp.” It’s necessary!!! Pray that I don’t have criers and that mom and dad will bring them in and let them go, let them grow up. I can’t imagine how hard it is for them but I know it is. Pray that everything will go smoothly, that I will have no temper tantrum children and that Day 1 will be great for me and my students!!! Pray that I will love each one of my kids, my loud ones, quiet, annoying, and teacher pleasers…love each one the same and find the good in each one of them!

BTW, I took this strengths test and discovered that my strength is Harmony. I think the test was accurate!

I think I did pretty good yesterday and managed to keep a great secret from my friends. I surprised everyone with Kaylan!!! She came in for the weekend since friday night was designated as girls night. I got away with telling the girls I was gonna be late because I was working in my classroom trying to get things ready for school next week. Yeah, well, that wasn’t really the case. I was late because I was waiting at the airport for them to let Kaylan off the plane. They made it to the gate when they were supposed to but there was lightning so they were stuck on the plane an extra 30 minutes. There’s not much to do in an airport while you’re waiting and you can only people watch so much when its the same people. Anyways, so we got to Jenns and i went in and put my things down and “accidentally” left my cell phone in the car so i had to go get it, and then i brought kaylan back in. I loved the looks on their faces. It was great and every single one of them was so shocked. Don’t you just love that shock factor! Anyways it was a great night reminising about the old college days and just having a good time, not to mention a little harrassment from the others about the raptor…i think the raptor has retired, he’s moved on…sorry!

Today I got to hear a wise man speak at our district convocation to empower us for the year. I didn’t know who the speaker was gonna be but as soon as they started telling things about the speaker such as he was disneys teacher of the year, he taught in nyc and believed in children and he wrote a book called “the essential 55″ i knew exactly who they were talking about….Ron Clark. I was excited to see that they got him to be our guest speaker. He was an amazing speaker, hysterical, so real, and just really great. It was so good…i really feel like this year is going to be a great year! It’s my year…my year to step it up a notch and to teach those kids even more than I taught my kids last year. I know my class was handpicked just for me. They are in my class for a reason. There may be that one kid that drives me crazy (there always is) but that kid needs me this year. Pray for me!!!

Well, work has been work. It’s good to actually be doing something these days but of course, who wants to work. I’ve been really into planning things out way in advance this year. I guess I just wanna make sure I teach my kids the best I can. I mean isn’t that what i’m getting paid to do. I actually do love what I do. I get to teach kids and see and hear them say and do funny things. They can be pretty hysterical at times….check out my other blog to see some of the funny things they have said in the past… mylittleblessings.blogspot.com I’ll add stories as they come Our numbers are still really low this year for Kindergarten. Pray that we get at least 5 more kids each. Then all of us will be safe and not have to be concerned about being shipped off to another school or moved to another grade level. I’m safe where I’m at, so no worries for me. We have 3 kinder classes and I have the most in my class now with 12. The other 2 classes have only 11. So we’ll see what happens.

I feel like I had more thoughts but apparently my mind is shot…i’ve been sitting all day trying to learn all I can learn to make me a better teacher. Do you remember those little round seats that are on the cafeteria tables? Well its not easy being a normal sized person sitting on thos little round seats for 3 hours. Man that’s uncomfortable!

Alright so 3 more staff days until D day! Pray for me!!!!!!!

Wow! Two days in a row…look at me, getting back into the blogging world after a short summer break with a few blogs here and there. Like i’ve said before, not that people read this stuff, but i know there are a few of you out there who would be lost without reading my thoughts

Hooray for no tax weekend!!! You know i’ve always said I’d rather pay the tax instead of face the crowds. Well today, well tonight, i braved the crowds on my way home from a long day in east texas. Luckily my 2 favorite clothes stores happen to be right next to each other and very convenient to get to in our outdoor mall. It’s times like today when I love the outdoor mall where you can choose just the store you want, and go just in there and not be bothered by all those people at the mall who really don’t know what they want. So i parked and made my way into the store and there were no more people than usual in the store. I saved a great deal of money, not only from the no tax on clothes but also from the coupon they sent me in the mail. And on top of that, for every 30 dollars you spend, you get a coupon for 15 dollars off another purchase of 30 dollars or more. So needless to say, i’ll be back! Then I walked next door to another one of my favorite stores which is too expensive for me to shop in unless i hit the sale racks. I got a pair of really comfy capris for 10 bucks, well not quite 10 bucks but close enough. They were regular like 30 I think….go me!!!

So there’s my story for the day. Oh and I looked to see if anymore kids were added to my class list. I’ve gone up to 11 now. I’ve got a student in my class that I started with last year, but he left school because it was too hard for him to be away from mom. So let’s just hope that private kindergarten helped him with his separation anxiety and he’ll be better off this year. He really was a great kid, pretty smart from what I remember but he wanted to be with mom more than anything…he’s one of those mama’s boys. Gotta love those mama’s boys

I’m out! My family (extended family) wears me out. So does driving to and from east texas in the same day with my immediate family. So tired…